POLAND: Thousands Attend Fifteenth Annual Warsaw Pride Festival

Thousands of activists have marched in scorching weather in Warsaw's 15th yearly "Equality Parade," confirming a growing public support for gay rights.The participants chanted in support of same sex marriage and the right for same-sex couples to adopt children. Carrying a huge rainbow-colored flag, they marched from the Parliament building, through the downtown Savior Square, where a giant rainbow stands. The artwork has been repeatedly burnt by right-wing groups and is to be moved next year to another location. Small groups of gay rights opponents chanted hostile rhymes, but there was no violence.

The participants carried placards with political messages. They said: ‘We too are family’, ‘Marriage for everyone with the right to adoption', and ‘Yes to the right [for] gender reconciliation’. Poland has no legal rights for same-sex couples, though the issue has been debated in the Parliament of Poland; the country is predominately Catholic. Małgorzata Fuszara, the Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Rights, headed the parade. She said of the march: ‘This is a march in the interest of us all, the whole of Poland, so that our society becomes one where people are open, free and show solidarity. To make it strong and diverse.’ Polish celebrities and MPs also attended the parade in support of its message for equality: including Poland’s first openly gay mayor, Robert Biedroń.

Poland enacted a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in 1992. Gays are protected from employment discrimination and serve openly in the military.